Microsoft, the "scalper" of large models: bringing GPT to the East and selling DeepSeek to the West
Well, Microsoft! Are you becoming a reseller of large models?
According to Bloomberg, Microsoft is reselling GPT models to domestic customers. The tech media CRN even describes Microsoft as "the gateway to OpenAI for China."
Meanwhile, while "importing," Microsoft hasn't forgotten about the "export" business. It is selling DeepSeek to foreign users.
In short, Microsoft has mastered the game of being a cross - border middleman for large models.
This is the most sophisticated Token transfer.
ByteDance, Tencent, and Ant Group Are All Customers
According to Bloomberg, ByteDance is the biggest customer in Microsoft's reselling business.
ByteDance is also very generous in buying GPT. Its annual spending on Microsoft's AI and cloud services is approaching $1 billion.
In addition to ByteDance, Tencent and Meituan are also major AI customers on Microsoft Azure. They are also purchasing OpenAI models through Microsoft.
ByteDance, Tencent, Meituan, and Ant Group together represent almost half of China's Internet industry.
And Microsoft is the middleman selling OpenAI models to this half of the industry.
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Meanwhile, Microsoft doesn't plan to return empty - handed.
Since the beginning of 2025, Microsoft has listed DeepSeek models on Azure and sold them to overseas users.
By mid - year this year, Microsoft is even considering using DeepSeek - V4 in its own Copilot product, citing the increasing inference costs of several AI labs in the United States.
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Back to the "import" business, the way Microsoft operates this business is quite interesting.
Microsoft has chosen Singapore as a transit point. The cloud computing power in Singapore is exactly embedded in the middle of the supply chain for customers.
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How well is this business doing?
Judson Althoff, the former chief commercial officer of Microsoft, said at an internal sales meeting in July 2025 that Azure's AI revenue in China has the fastest growth rate among all of Microsoft's sales regions. It almost tripled in the fiscal year ending in June 2025, and even more incredibly, it increased by 400% the year before.
Althoff described Microsoft's business like this at that time, "The world's top - tier AI is being built on the west coast of the United States and the east coast of China. It's quite remarkable that Microsoft is connecting these two places."
It is indeed remarkable. But OpenAI doesn't think so.
OpenAI Is Dissatisfied, but Microsoft Keeps Selling
OpenAI itself can't sell models to Chinese customers...
But through Microsoft, the middleman, the path is clear.
There is a special cooperation agreement between Microsoft and OpenAI. Among the rights Microsoft has obtained is the right to decide how to sell GPT series models in China.
The contract is in black and white, and OpenAI signed it personally back then.
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But knowing is one thing, and OpenAI can't help but feel uncomfortable.
Bloomberg reports that OpenAI has privately expressed dissatisfaction to Microsoft several times, suggesting that Microsoft hasn't been strict enough in this regard.
Microsoft's response is that it has deployed a system to prevent abuse, and it only sells AI models to large - scale and mature enterprises in China, which is a fully compliant operation.
Even though it's well - known that the relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI has soured, the contracts signed during the honeymoon period are still valid.
Pragmatic Microsoft is doing booming business.
Reference Links:
[1]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-17/microsoft-s-china-ai-business-grows-on-openai-model-sales
[2]https://www.crnasia.com/news/2026/artificial-intelligence/microsoft-quietly-becomes-china-s-gateway-to-openai-and-the
This article is from the WeChat official account "QbitAI". Author: Cressey. Republished by 36Kr with permission.